amazing, Rafale is the ultimate multirole XD +1 to the list of things it can do
a growler with 3 NGJ pods will outperform it in jamming though, just saying
of course, the point of multirole aircraft is not to be the topper in everything but to do everything decently. The Rafale is decent at air-air, decent at air-ground, decent at sead, decent at nuclear deterrence, decent as a tanker… What makes it awesome is one aircraft can do any of these
But obviously specialized aircrafts do their job better, that’s their whole point
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The NGJ pods is an interesting read, seems to be finally catching up to what the Rafale has been capable of. Keep in mind that the Rafale has AESA antenna jammers that protect it in a completely spherical coverage while some sources suggest that not even the F-35 is capable of such.
Source: Navair
Thanks to AESA jammers coming with NGJ pods, the Growler is capable of providing protection in a 360 azimuth but I don’t believe it is full spherical like the Rafale’s, so I wouldn’t claim just yet that it is greater in capabilities.
Here you can see that the Rafale is capable of jamming in a 360 degree basis, so both ingress and egress.
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The more I learn about this plane the more I like it
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Obviously, dedicated jamming aircraft will use far more powerful jammers. I believe a growler at full power can emit up to 10KW. They are made to protect other aircrafts as well, such as other fighters or bombers in a formation. The F35 also apparently has pretty powerful jammers, in the order of 1000W, more powerful than the Rafale (in the order of 100W), then again, because they need to be able to jam for other aircrafts. The numbers I give are what I have seen in other discussions about EW, and I have no sources for them. I however believe they are a pretty fair representation of jammers emissions power
France on the other hand, going 100% rafale in the future, maybe with a few Mirage 2000 in uncontested areas, does not have that need for jamming multiple aircrafts at the same time. Thus, the SPECTRA is designed to only cover the aircraft it’s installed on, but with the emphasis being made to give the largest coverage possible, that is spherical, which only the f35 currently could claim to be able to do so for other fighter jets. (At least I thought it did until @DirectSupport last comment)
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CATOBAR aircraft carrier takeoff capabilities on the Rafale M would be amazing and fun, if we had any aircraft carriers at top tier.
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did you know the Rafale has a stall speed so low that it can take off with just a ski jump, it doesn’t need a catapult?
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I did not. All ik was that it’s certified for use on US carriers which is pretty sick.
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In game ?
IRL it probably can as well, just not with a full loadout. The goal of a catapult assisted launch is to get in the air a fully loaded and fuelled airplane that can strike at its max range. There’s a reason why the F35B has an even worse range than even the more normal f35s.
Irl, idk in game
yeah ofc payload is limiting especially for a plane like the Rafale which can take up to 1.5 its own weight
Yeah actually they used american facilities to develop the Rafale M, and it did later land on us carriers occasionally. Pretty sick I agree
While the Growler is said to be more powerful, it did lack AESA jammers for a long time. The Rafale makes up for the lack of power through AESA jammers which provides directional beams to jam specific radars and missiles. This capability was not there for the Growler until just this past December with the NGJ pods implying that Growlers without NGJ pods lack specific capabilities.
Here’s an interesting read on NGJ pods: Next Generation Jammer Mid-Band Achieves Initial Operational Capability - The Aviationist
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no spinny spinny thing on the new pods :'(
old pods with ram turbines will always be in my heart
i’m just saying that the notion of “you dont need SEAD aircraft” is silly
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the new pods still have their spinnies but inside of them
ik but its sad, the old pods looked very unique while these just look like weird droptanks
How so? Maybe I’m lost and not understanding something.
not only its not that silly, it’s very practical because dedicated sead aircrafts are not always available, so it’s strategically a very powerful advantage
What’s so good about the all-Rafale strategy of France is as long as they have a fighter, they can have an interceptor, an air superiority fighter, a reconnaissance aircraft, a sead aircraft, a bomber/attacker, a nuclear deterrent, a small tanker, etc etc
They just need to have the needed weaponry available, which is easier to have than a whole aircraft
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Because while it is very capable it cannot hide. You could not fly a Rafale to Moscow and ignore all the Russian Radar and SAMs. No EW suite has that power